Entry DescriptionA 23-minute documentary on the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps is available for viewing on the Department of Natural Resources’ YouTube channel.

The channel is at dnr.IN.gov/7426.htm. For those looking for a quick overview, a two-minute trailer of highlights is also included on the YouTube channel.

The documentary features interviews with Civilian Conservation Corps veterans and Pokagon State Park interpreter Fred Wooley, an expert on CCC history. The veterans recall living in CCC camps throughout Indiana and passing time in surrounding communities on weekends.

The CCC was a Depression-era program aimed at getting men ages 18 to 25 back to work. It was established in 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the New Deal. The men of the CCC built and improved state parks and other public properties in Indiana and across the United States. They constructed roads, hiking trails, campgrounds and shelter houses and planted 3 billion trees nationwide. They earned $30 a month.

Indiana had 56 CCC camps. The program was segregated, and eight of Indiana’s camps were African- American. With about 250 men, the 517th Company was the largest such camp in Indiana. It helped build what is now O’Bannon Woods State Park and helped victims of the 1937 Ohio River flood.

Visitors to Indiana’s state parks can see excellent examples of CCC-built structures at the Lower Shelter House at Brown County, the CCC Shelter at Pokagon, the Stone Arch Bridge and Beech Grove Shelter at McCormick’s Creek, the North and South gate houses at Clifty Falls, and the Lodge Recreation Building at Ouabache.

The documentary was filmed in summer 2012 during an annual reunion of Indiana CCC veterans at Turkey Run.

The 2013 CCC reunion will be Aug. 24 at McCormick’s Creek as part of the Indiana Landmark’s Experience. DNR hopes to have a panel of CCC veterans who can share their experiences in the CCC.

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